The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-01-20
RURAL TOPICS.
Useful Suggestions Concerning
Farming and Farm Life.


Farming and Farm Life.
Changes In Farming.
Most observers have noticed that
nearly all persons who occupy new
farms in the west commence by devot-
ing most of their energies to raising
the small grains. They break all the
land they can, and sow it. to wheat,
oats, rye. or barley. The preference is
generally given to wheat, for the rea-
son that it, brings the highest price in
the market. Oats are somewhat
safer crop. but the cost of sending
them to market is greater. Barley
generally brings a good price, but. as
the grain is likely to become discolored
by unfavorable weather at the period
of ripening, few western farmers ra Sc
it unless they live where the seasons
are known to be favorable at the time
the grain approaches maturity. Most
western farmers who were raised on
the continent of Europe sow rye, as
they want it for use in Their fam lies,
but only n few raise it for the market,
unless they have considerable amount
of sandy land that will not produce pay
ing crops of other grains. Much larg-
er areas of land are sown to wheat
than to other kinds of grain. Wheat is
the fashionable crop n all the western
states and territories, and is the favor
ite with those who have large bodies OF
land. Cap talists who engage in farm
ing prefer wheat to any kind Of grain.
They have the means to purchase teams
and machinery. and by the aid of these
they can produce wheat with very
small amount of manual labor. Small
farmers raise wheat because it brings
more money, even at the recent low
prices, than any crop they can produce.
They need money to pay for their land,
to erect buildings, to build fences, to
buy stock, and to make variety of i'm
provements on their places. AS rule,
they run their land to wheat till the
yield becomes SO small that some other
crop must be substituted for it. They
depend on wheat for getting their first
start and meeting their pressing obli-
cations.
Ordinarily corn and fiaxseed are rails
ed with practical view of rottng the
prairie sod SO that the ground will be
in a condition to produce wheat The
former is fed to cattle, hogs. and work
horses, and the latter sold for making
oil. After successive crops of wheat
have taken from the soil large pro-
portion of the substances that are
necessary for the formation of straw
and grain, the owner of the land sees
the necessity of devoting it to other
purposes. In series of years he raises
corn and grass rs leading crops and
feeds them to hogs and cattle for the
purpose of producing meat for the
market As rule he keeps native
or grade animals, as he has not the
means to purchase those of pure blood.
Raising meat follows the raising of
grain in a sort of natural order on most
western farms. The production of
grain for the supply of the family is
not neglected. but on most farms that
have been under cultivation from ten
to fifteen years most of the money is
derived from the sale of fat cattle and
hogs. AS farmers have more means
they seek to tighten their labors, and
they find that it is easier to raise cattle
and hogs than wheat and other small
grains, and they accordingly make the
change.
In many portions of the northern
states dairying succeeds meat produc-
ton as meat production succeeds grain
raising. AS land becomes valuable the
owners desire to make as much out of
it as possible. They find that they can
derive more money from the sale of
milk or the butter and cheese made
from it than from the pork and beef
they can produce on their farms. They
have the means to purchase good dairy
COWS and to erect buildings for shelter
ing them. As population increases
there is no trouble in securing mixers.
The farms are in high state of cult.
vation, and great variety of crops can
be raised on them. Dairying ON an ex-
and highly improved farms in central
New York, and has gradually extended
westward to the Missouri river. Only
in rare instances has the business OF
dairying on an extensive scale been
undertaken in portion of the country
that has recently been settled. The
introduction of the plan of buying
cream of farmers has made milk pro-
duction profitable in newly-settled
portions of Iowa and Minnesota but as
a rule milk farming is the third stage in
the progress of agriculture in most
parts of this country and Canada.
Observation in old dairy regions
shows, however, that the production
of milk, except for the supply of large
cities. generally gives place to some
thing else in the course of few years.
Farmers who have made considerable
money in dairying at length become
tired of milking and the general care of
dairy cows. As consequence they
gradually give up dairying for the breed
ing of fine stock. In many of the best
dairy regions of New York, Ohio. Illi-
nois. and southern Wisconsin the old
milk producers have sold off their dairy
stock and have engaged in the breeding
of fine cattle, horses. sheep, and pigs.
The like is true in the old dairy regions
in Canada. Men of large means desire
to use their money so as to derive the
most profit from it, and they also de-
sire an occupation that will not be very
laborious. Breeding fine stock is a
business suited to their condition, and
they engage in it. A farm fitted up
for dairy purposes is well adapted for
a breeding establishment 1t is well
supplied with buildings and water, while
the land is in cnndition to raise large
crops of grass and oats.
Wood for Fuel.
This country is more abundantly sup